After being out of town for a while, it was nice to get back on Tonka to chase the bass. The only problem, the bass fishing has been hit or miss lately. There are still a few fish out in the milfoil that are willing to hit jigs, but its only one here, one there at best for me. The best bass action for us has been skipping docks. A weightless plastic like a 5" Outkast Stickworm Texas rigged has caught the majority of the fish. The numbers have been real nice, with some size thrown in from time to time. This year has been what I would consider an off year compared to normal.
While fishing shallow we have really noticed the presence of baitfish. You’ll see minnows popping here and there. Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits have also worked well for the bass, but the pike have been eating them like candy. Many pike in the 5-10lb range have been taken on bright colored spinnerbaits on weed flats in less than 7′ of water. These fish are very healthy and aggressive. A big pike hitting a buzzbait is am awesome site.
Speaking of awesome sites, the muskies have really shown up in numbers. September is usually the best time of the year for me to catch muskies on Tonka. While we did not intentially fish for them this past week, we saw at least 4 fish each day out. For someone that really knows how to trigger these big fish, you could have a hayday.
the best time of the year is just around the corner for most of our good lakes. yeah Fall.
thanks Mike, Jack..
This last wed was just aweful! The wind howled. The rain poured. And the fish were small. In the final Wednesday Night tournament of the year it only took 13lbs to win. The pike were still active in the shallow water however.
Mike;
Are you spotting any muskies around the shallows yet?
Almost everytime out we are still seeing them. Depending on the weather, I was planning to give them a try fri.